Night Powell’s return is a triumph

UCLA students, rejoice. We, once again, have a venue where we can stay up all night together studying for that 8 a.m. midterm, starting that 15-page paper that’s due in 12 hours and taking those 30-minute power naps throughout long study sessions.

Thanks to the online petitions, the loud voices of discontented students, two generous donors who gave a combined $100,000, and the Undergraduate Students Association Council who voted unanimously to allocate $25,000 of its surplus fund to the program, Night Powell has been reopened since Monday at 11 p.m.

For the 2009-2010 academic year, Night Powell will cost an estimated $125,000 to maintain, a sum of money both the university and librarians thought would be unattainable just a few weeks ago.

This editorial board is thrilled with the resurrection of this important program. The reopening has the potential to benefit every student on this campus and is arguably one of UCLA’s most treasured programs. It’s more than just convenience ““ it’s tradition.

This board would like to express its gratitude to the two donors and USAC, who contributed the necessary funds for the program’s reopening. But mostly, we would like to applaud the efforts of the UCLA community for uniting and speaking out in unison against the closure of the service.

The university will make a wide variety of cuts over the next few years. Each time, people will tell us that the decision they’re making is absolutely necessary, or that they’ve considered all the alternatives and have been left with no other choice.

But what the reopening of Night Powell teaches us is that if indiscriminate cries of protest are organized into appropriately targeted arguments, other options may materialize where there seemed to be none before.

There is no absolute formula for this, but there are a few key lessons to be learned.

Pick the right battles: The closing of Night Powell was a specific problem with a definite price tag that affected the entire student body.

Be realistic: Night Powell was saved by $125,000, but the alternatives to many of the other cuts being made may be more difficult.

Speak with one voice: There is always someone listening. When this board met with Chancellor Gene Block two weeks ago, he told us that the closing of Night Powell was too great a sacrifice to make, a stance that this board believes was a response to the public outcry over the closing.

About two weeks later, donors contributed toward Night Powell’s reopening, and now, one of the campus’s most cherished programs has been restored.

This board understands that cuts must and will happen. The university is saddled with an unreliable fiscal partner in the state of California and faces rising costs and one of the worst economic climates in decades.

It’s impossible to close the budget gap by merely complaining, but what Night Powell teaches us is that it is possible to influence priorities.